1. Field of the Invention
Under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 120, Applicant claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/766,036, filed Dec. 16, 1996 now abandoned. The present invention relates to a parking brake for a vehicle, and more particularly to a parking brake cable tension adjustment apparatus by which tension of a parking brake cable can be continuously maintained at a constant level even though the cable becomes elongated, or a brake lining becomes worn.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle typically is equipped with a parking brake in order to keep the vehicle at a stable position when it is parked.
A conventional parking brake includes, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a parking brake lever 51 disposed proximate a driver's seat, a cable 53 connected to the lever 51, and an equalizer 57 for equally dividing the force drawn by the cable 53 to a rear wheel brake apparatus 55 provided at the rear wheels.
FIG. 6 illustrates in detail an equalizer of a conventional parking brake, where the equalizer includes a support bracket 59 connected to the cable 53. Cable 53 is connected to both lateral ends of the support bracket 59 to thereby be connected to the rear wheel brake apparatus 55.
Furthermore, the bracket 59 is provided with an adjusting nut 61 which is connected to the cable for adjusting tension of the cable 53.
When the parking brake lever 51 thus constructed is pulled, the cable 53 is drawn up to thereby cause equal forces to be respectively transmitted to the rear wheel brakes through the equalizer 57 connected to the cable 53, thereby to operate the rear wheel brakes, so that balanced braking can be maintained. When the parking brake lever 51 is released, the braking of the rear wheel brakes connected to the cable 53 is also released.
Over time, the parking brake lining becomes worn. Moreover, as parking brake lever 51 is pulled repeatedly, the cable 53 becomes elongated.
When either of these events occurs, the adjusting nut 61 must be manually tightened to adjust the length of the cable, by which an optimum condition can be maintained.
However, there is a problem in the parking brake apparatus described above, because the adjusting nut has to be tightened to cause the elongated parking cable to maintain the appropriate tension. In order to tighten the adjusting nut, a rear console disposed near the driver's seat must be dismantled. This is a complicated and time-consuming procedure. Drivers therefore often neglect to adjust the brake cable, resulting in a possibly dangerous condition.